​Scotland sees house prices surge of 6.2% for the month of February in 2018

According to a new report, house prices across Scotland rose by 6.2% in the year to February, which is slightly more than the UK average.

The official house sales data has shown that the average price of a property in Scotland throughout February 2018 was £144,377, which is a notable increase from the £136,011 it was in February 2017.

While the prices are still less than the UK average as a whole, where the average price of a home is £225,047, the increase for the UK is 4.4%, as opposed to 6.2%.

However, on a month-to-month basis, house prices in Scotland dropped 2.7% as opposed to the rest of the UK, which had a fall of just 0.1%.

In all but four of Scotland’s 32 local authorities in February 2018, average price increases were recorded when comparing prices from 12 months ago.

In line with that, the price rise in February continues what has proved to be an upwards trends recorded in recent years.

All of these figures are contained in the UK House Price Index (UK HPI).

The most notable increases took place in Argyll and Bute, which saw prices shoot up by 13.3% to £144,404, while Edinburgh and West Lothian also saw price increases, with the average prices there going up 11.2% to £250,986 and £153,230 respectively.

There were some decreases as well, and these were recorded in Aberdeen City and Sterling, where house prices dropped by 1.5% to £159,653 and 0.5% to £174,076 respectively.

In February, Edinburgh was the most expensive place in Scotland to purchase a home, which maybe isn’t too much of a shock given it’s the capital city, while East Ayrshire was the cheapest at an average price of £95,000.

Across the entirety of Scotland, prices on all property ties rose when being directly compared to the same month in the previous year, while the report also showed that terraced properties had shown the biggest increase, with the number rising by 7,1% to £119,109.

Also in February 2018, the average price for a property that was purchased by a first-time buyer was £116,406, which represents a 6.2% increased compared to the same month in the previous year.

Elsewhere in Scotland, when compared to figures from December 2016, residential sales volumes had dropped in December 2017 by 5.1%.

However, this has been seen as a comparatively good thing, as across the whole of the UK, volumes had dropped at a much greater rate.